Reflection of Professional Development Project

Kayla Stephenson

I worked with teachers at CommerceElementary Schoolto enhance their use of the eInstruction CPS software and clickers based on their technology needs.

Every classroom teacher at CommerceElementary School has a set of clickers. However, teachers who came in during the middle of the school year are unsure about building a class, a lesson and connecting to use the CPS clickers in the classroom.

In preparation for the class, I made 10 file folders with handouts of step by step instructions for how to create a class, a lesson and how to use the clickers in the classroom. I also created a pre/post-assessment using the CPS software. Reflecting on the beginning of the lesson, I felt very prepared and confident in my structure of the lesson. My classroom motto is to allow my assessment to guide instruction. Therefore, I applied that same motto when creating my professional development project.

My class involved five novice teachers. I started the lesson by using my “How to” guide to demonstrate how to set up the CPS clickers. Then, I had students actually take a pre-assessment using the CPS clickers.

The pre-assessment consisted of three multiple choice questions. I ask students to evaluate their knowledge of the CPS software and clickers through questions such as, “How do you feel about your ability to build a class using the CPS software, How do you feel about your ability to build a lesson using the CPS software, and How do you feel about your ability to set up the CPS clickers for classroom use;” the answer choices were A-Knowledgeable, B-Little Knowledge, C-No knowledge.

The majority of the students had little knowledge of how to build a class using the CPS software and little knowledge of how to build a lesson using the software. The class had no knowledge of how to set up and join the clickers for classroom use. Therefore, I decided to quickly overview how to build a class and a lesson, and spend the majority of my time teaching the class how to set up the clickers for use.

After the pre-assessment, I passed out the “How to” guide for creating a class and lesson and how to set up the clickers. I went through an example of how to create the class and lesson by using the CPS computer software. Then, I had the students split into groups. I set up three 5 minute rotations. One group built a lesson, one group created a class and one group set up the clickers for use. Then, we rotated. At the end of the lesson, I had the class take the same assessment.

The assessment posed new results. The five students felt knowledgeable in regards to all three areas of the assessment. With the help of the handouts alongside the hands on interaction with the technology, the five students’ feel knowledgeable about the PRS software and clickers.

The preparation and interaction with the technology allowed the students the opportunity to feel confident in their ability to use CPS software and clickers to enhance their classroom lessons.